Parker’s streak, A’s streak come to ends; no dramatic late action

Even while writing this, I’m poised for a late-game turnaround by the A’s – have Oakland fans become spoiled, expecting that every game will be close and interesting? This one, a 7-1 loss to Seattle, was not close, nor was it particularly interesting.

So only a short blog to get to the pertinent points:

**Jarrod Parker had allowed no more than one run in 10 of his first 14 career starts, the first man since 1917 to do that. No. 15 was one of his six-run specials: He has three of those this year. That’s weird. In his other 11 starts, Parker hasn’t allowed more than two runs.

“I made a lot of mistakes, I’m not happy with it, embarrassed, to be honest,” he said. “I set the tone early. As a starting staff, we want to attack early, and I did the opposite.”

Asked to expand on that, Parker said, “Not the right pitch. Not the right count. Not making the pitch that needs to be made.”

“I think we’re spoiled with him,” Oakland manager Bob Melvin said. “He’s been so good every time out.”

**Jerry Blevins took over for Parker in the fifth with two on, walked a batter and gave up a bases-clearing double to Kyle Seager.

**Josh Reddick was the only A’s player to enjoy a great evening. He hit his 20th homer before the break, the first A’s player to do so since Nick Swisher in 2006, and Reddick also made the play of the game, diving to rob Ichiro Suzuki of a hit and probable extra bases in the third inning.

“He’s made some great plays in the outfield, he gets great reads, great jumps and 20 home runs on top of that, that’s a feather in his cap,” Melvin said. “He believes he’s one of the elite right fielders in the game and he’s done nothing to disprove that.”

**Coco Crisp did not make the play of the game. For the second time in this series, an A’s outfielder dived for a ball and it all went wrong. Yoenis Cespedes let a drive get past him as he plunged to his right on Friday night, and in the first inning tonight, Crisp slid forward for a sinking drive by John Jaso and it got by him, scoring Michael Saunders from first.

“He’s got an idea when he can get balls and when he can’t,” Melvin said. “He just missed, and it went by him. I’ve seen him make that play before. I don’t fault him for that decision.”

The A’s five-game winning streak came to an end and if the team wants to go into the break with a .500 record, they must win on Sunday

There was a brief delay after the top of the 7th because a rotating sign behind home plate was stuck on a blank. The ball potentially coming out of a white background isn’t ideal for an infield or pitcher, so attempts were made to fix it.